#FASHIONVICTIM

by Amina Akhtar, for Brilliance Audio

Fashion editor Anya St. Clair is on the verge of greatness. Her wardrobe is to die for. Her social media is killer. And her career path is littered with the bodies of anyone who got in her way. She’s worked hard to get where she is, but she doesn’t have everything. Not like Sarah Taft. Anya’s obsession sits one desk away. Beautiful, stylish, and rich, she was born to be a fashion world icon. And Anya wants to be her friend. Her best friend. Her only friend. But when Sarah becomes her top competition for a promotion, Anya’s plan to win her friendship goes into overdrive. In order to beat Sarah…she’ll have to become her. Friendly competition may turn fatal, but as they say in fashion: One day you’re in, and the next day you’re dead.

Narrator Bailey Carr's perfect deadpan tone is fitting for Anya St. Clair, a fashion magazine contributor who expresses more worry over blood-soaked shoes than she does over its source. What begins as friendly competition for a promotion between Anya and her co-worker and obsession, Sarah Taft, turns fiercely fatal as Anya justifies what she's willing to do to achieve her goal. Delivering dark humor at its finest, Carr's narration is most notable for its crystal-clear quality, mostly void of emotion except for moments of rage delivered through gritted teeth. Anya's smooth voice belies her inner turmoil and disdain for the majority of humanity. Her editor, however, is a sharp and commanding presence spitting out orders that only compound the situations Anya finds herself in.

-Audiofile Magazine

THE NIGHT SWIM

by Megan Goldin, for Macmillan Audio

After the first season of her true crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall is now a household name - and the last hope for thousands of people seeking justice. But she's used to being recognised for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help. Someone is following her, and she won't stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insists she was murdered - and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody seems to want to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.

Narrators Bailey Carr, Samantha Desz, and January LaVoy are the perfect trio to narrate Megan Goldin's latest thriller involving a true-crime podcaster and her coverage of a rape trial in a North Carolina town. Carr gives the podcast follower, Hannah, a delicate, poignant tone that captures her emotions. The shocking connection between events makes this a gripping listen.

-Audiofile Magazine

SAINT X

by Alexis Schaitkin, for Macmillan Audio

Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men - employees at the resort - are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released. The story turns into national tabloid news, a lurid mystery that will go unsolved. Years later, Claire is living and working in New York City when a brief but fateful encounter brings her together with Clive Richardson, one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. It is a moment that sets Claire on an obsessive pursuit of the truth - not only to find out what happened the night of Alison’s death but also to answer the elusive question: Who exactly was her sister?

While visiting an exclusive Caribbean resort, a family’s 18-year-old daughter disappears and is found washed up on the beach two days later. Seventeen years later the girl's younger sister tries to make sense of her sister's tragic death, and this is where the ensemble approach of the novel pays great dividends. The separate and distinct voices of college friends, the sisters' mother, diary entries, and a handful of Jamaican-accented former resort employees deftly magnify the complex issues of race, class, and gender that come together in the heartrending conclusion.

-Audiofile Magazine

"Alexis Schaitkin's splashy debut novel, Saint X, is an audiobook lover's dream.... Queue this one up for a murderous, dreamy delight."

-Paste

BLAME

by Jeff Abbott, for Hachette Audio

A seemingly idyllic, close-knit suburban neighborhood hides deeply buried secrets. Two years ago Jane Norton crashed her car on a lonely road, killing her friend David and leaving her with amnesia. At first everyone was sympathetic. Then they found Jane's note: I wish we were dead together. From that day the town turned against her. But even now Jane is filled with questions: Why were they on that road? Why was she with David? Did she really want to die? Most of all she must find out who has just written her an anonymous message: I know what really happened. I know what you don't remember....

This unconventional thriller features four different characters who are portrayed by Bailey Carr, Lauren Fortgang, Vanessa Johansson, and Greg Tremblay. Teenager Jane Norton is still suffering from amnesia from a car accident two years ago. Faced with questions about what happened and the mystery of an anonymous note from someone who appears to hold the answers, she strives to discover the truth as the story delves into the importance of memory.

-Audiofile Magazine

IF YOU TELL A LIE

by Lucinda Berry, for Brilliance Audio

A haunting thriller about four friends sworn to secrecy over the events of one fateful summer—and the dark truths that threaten to erupt years later. They never considered how his wife might react, or that by the end of the summer a man would be dead. But Blakely always got her way, and the others followed her lead—even when they knew it was dead wrong. Unfolding in a dual timeline, If You Tell a Lie is a disturbing journey into the dangerous, sometimes deadly consequences of peer pressure—with a bone-chilling twist you’ll never see coming.

BLOOD IS BLACK

by Scott Pratt, an Audible Original for Audible Studios

Presley Carter is a bright, hungry young defense attorney plying her trade in the areas in and around Nashville. Though she’s haunted by a horrifying event from her past, she’s achieved local renown as a savvy, resourceful lawyer adept at handling – and winning - tough cases. When she receives a phone call informing her a convict’s release has been approved, however, she’s shocked to learn she’s been unwittingly drawn into an evil scheme that could reach as high as the halls of the state capitol. Presley must then make a difficult choice. Should she stand idly by and allow a shadowy syndicate of corruption to fester in her backyard? Or should she follow in her father’s footsteps and take a stand, placing her in the crosshairs of one of the most vicious, powerful men the state has ever seen.